For every regular movie watcher, there’s a genre or two that gets, if not a free pass, at least an automatic look. Heist movies and westerns fill that column for me. So I’m predisposed to be interested in Dead Man’s Burden, which documentarian Jared Moshé (Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel) directed as his dramatic feature debut. That the film boasts genre-appropriate 35mm cinematography and a good cast (Barlow Jacobs, David Call of Nobody Walks, and Clare Bowen of Nashville) doesn’t hurt.

This trailer sets up a simple but classic premise: family strife, exacerbated by the return of a long-absent brother. Yet as detailed as the beginning of the trailer is, I’m not at all sure where this one goes. There’s a strong current of familiar genre imagery here, including quite a heavy dose of The Searchers, but that seems to inform the look and staging, rather than how it all plays out. Check out the trailer below. Read More »